{"id":35826,"date":"2025-04-20T14:46:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T14:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/35826\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T14:46:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T14:46:09","slug":"f1-boss-endorses-future-ferrari-signing-which-wolff-might-not-agree-with","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/35826\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 boss endorses future Ferrari signing which ‘Wolff might not agree’ with"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrea Kimi Antonelli racing for Ferrari would be a \u201creally beautiful\u201d story, according to Formula 1 president and CEO Stefano Domenicali.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This therefore is a future Italian team and driver pairing which the F1 chief would love to see.<\/p>\n

Andrea Kimi Antonelli: Future Ferrari driver?<\/p>\n

Mercedes took a gamble by promoting their teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli from Formula 2 to replace Lewis Hamilton, who realised a childhood dream by signing with Ferrari from F1 2025.<\/p>\n

And the 18-year-old Italian Antonelli has made an impressive start to F1 life with Mercedes, scoring 30 points across the opening four grands prix and holding his own against experienced team-mate George Russell, three times a grand prix winner.<\/p>\n

Hamilton meanwhile has had a mixed start to his Ferrari career. His Sprint pole and victory in China was an impressive highlight, but he is yet to finish ahead of Charles Leclerc in a grand prix, while the recent return of his qualifying woes from last season have only increased the pressure on the 40-year-old.<\/p>\n

And looking down the road, Antonelli at Ferrari is a partnership which their former team principal Domenicali could definitely get on board with.<\/p>\n

\u201cKimi Antonelli in Ferrari? An Italian driver in an Italian car. We need a driver who, especially in today\u2019s world, represents a reference figure for young people,\u201d Domenicali said on Italian radio show \u2018La Politica nel pallone\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it would be really beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n

That being said, Domenicali is quite sure that Mercedes\u2019 F1 boss \u2013 after all that investment and faith placed into Antonelli \u2013 will definitely not want to see such a move happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I believe that Toto Wolff might not agree at this moment!\u201d Domenicali pointed out.<\/p>\n

Explaining that Antonelli is an \u201cextraordinary young man\u201d who displays \u201cvalues that I really like\u201d, Domenicali added: \u201cBefore equating him to any champion, I think it\u2019s right to wait, but the certainty is that he will become a protagonist in our world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Antonelli has also made a positive impression on former Ferrari chairman\u00a0Luca di Montezemolo.<\/p>\n

He believes Ferrari could have been the team to bring Antonelli into Formula 1, initially assigning him to engine customer team Sauber (to become Audi from F1 2026).<\/p>\n

That approach worked well for Leclerc, who spent his first Formula 1 season with Sauber in 2018 before stepping up to Ferrari.<\/p>\n

\u201cAntonelli is a first-rate driver, first of all because he\u2019s in his first year of F1 and he doesn\u2019t make mistakes, but he\u2019s fast and I see him growing,\u201d di Montezemolo told Sky Italia. \u201cAnd then he\u2019s from Bologna, like myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just sorry to see him in Mercedes. Would I have taken him? At 18 maybe not, but I would have put him at Sauber to do two years there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc and Hamilton are both contracted to Ferrari under multi-year deals.<\/p>\n

Read next: Russell\u2019s true feelings on Max Verstappen to Mercedes as four scenarios emerge<\/strong><\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andrea Kimi Antonelli racing for Ferrari would be a \u201creally beautiful\u201d story, according to Formula 1 president and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35827,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,997,707,4200,225,4859,12,79,14936,14319,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-35826","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-ferrari","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-home-page","13":"tag-mercedes","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-stefano-domenicali","17":"tag-toto-wolff","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114370837446237123","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35826"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35826\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}